Comment on America continues to fall behind the rest of the world
mechoman444@lemmy.world 1 day agoI am aware of all of this, and I’ve consistently acknowledged it throughout this entire exchange. I’m not deceiving myself into believing I live in some kind of utopia. I don’t. America has very serious problems.
I asked what country they’re from because it’s relevant to the discussion. There is not a single country on Earth that is free of blemishes, whether in its history or in its present.
Calling America a bad country while living in a country with its own serious flaws is an act of hypocrisy.
We’re all just people living on the same planet, each under whatever political system we happened to be born into.
If you live in America, then you know how good many aspects of life are here. It’s not the best country on Earth, and we absolutely have severe problems that need to be addressed. But it’s still a good place to live, with good people and a culture that has produced an enormous amount of good for the world. Our leadership is often disappointing, and the rise of nationalism is genuinely concerning. Those are problems worth opposing in every lawful way we can.
What I’m not willing to do is join in treating America as though it’s uniquely evil while ignoring the faults of every other nation. I love the United States. I’m a patriot. I love the people who live here, and I have no desire to leave for another country.
Krono@lemmy.today 1 day ago
Wait, so now you have “consistently acknowledged” that the US has legalized slavery enshrined in the Constitution? This is very confusing, as we can all scroll up and see your earlier comments.
A real patriot acknowledges their country’s faults, no matter how difficult this may be. A real patriot does not stick their head in the sand and make excuses about “the faults of every other nation”. I get the strong impression that you are not a real patriot.
mechoman444@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Feel free to check my comment history at any point. I’ve admonished America on many levels. We have very serious problems, and I even acknowledged that in the comment above.
I’ll tell you what I tell everybody else: antebellum chattel slavery in the United States is not the same thing as requiring labor from a convicted felon. Even then, incarcerated felons retain a multitude of constitutional rights.
You have no reason to believe what I’m about to tell you because I have no way to prove it. But I’ve done time in the U.S. prison system, so I’m uniquely familiar with that environment. As flawed as our court system is, and as dysfunctional as some of our prisons are, I can tell you that I and the people I served time with deserved to be there.
Does our prison system need reform? Absolutely. Probably more than almost any other institution in the United States right now.
I also stand up for my country when I see people making unsubstantiated blanket statements about things they know nothing about. Many of them probably learned about America’s problems through their own state-run or heavily biased media.
The rest of the world often dislikes America, and sometimes for legitimate reasons. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to sit quietly while some bloke on Lemmy badmouths the country I love.
Nonconfrontational@lemmy.ml 20 hours ago
I get the strong impression that they’re fucking stupid.
mechoman444@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
And you’re a small-minded coward.
Nonconfrontational@lemmy.ml 10 hours ago
At least I don’t deny the reality of slavery happening in my country, now finally: